Motor-driven rotary toothbrush



July 31,1 5 D. M. MARTINEZ MOTOR DRIVEN ROTARY TOOTHBRUSH 7 Filed Sept. 25, 1946 ATTD R N EYS INVIFNTOR. {067/0 M/l/arfmez,

Q Patented July 31, 1951.

UNITED{:SIATE PATENT r 2562305 1 BOTABY TOOTHBRUSH Delio Martinei Martinez, Habana, Cuba Pmiauon Se te b 25, 1946, Serial 69934 This invention relates to an improvement in tooth brushes and relates more particularly to motor driven rotary brushes.

An object of the invention is to provide atoothbrush employing brushes rotating in opposite directions and clutch means incorporated therein that will permit the use or non-use of the rotary motion of the brushes. I

Another object of the invention is to provide a toothbrush employing rotating brushes that is simple in construction and operation, and can be economically manufactured.

With the above and other objects in view, the invention consists of the novel details of construction, arrangement and combination of parts more fully hereinafter described, claimed and illustrated in the accompanying drawing in which:

Figure 1 is a partial sectional view of a toothbrush in accordance with the invention;

Figure 2 is an enlarged sectional view on the line 2-2 of Figure 3;

Figure 3 is a transverse sectional view on the line 33 of Figure 2;

Figure 4 is a sectional view on the line 4--4 of Figure 2;

Figure 5 is a sectional view on the line 5-5 of Figure 4; and

Figure 6 is a sectional view on the line 6-6 of Figure 1.

Referring more in detail to the drawing, the reference numeral I0 designates the brush head which comprises a shell or housing l2 partly housing rotary brushes I4. These brushes are so arranged as to project partly beyond the open side of the shell l2, and the two brushes rotate in opposite directions with the bristles l6 partly meshing, and the axis of the two brushes in parallelism.

Each brush is mounted on a short shaft l8 rotatably mounted in the head ID, and provided with a female conical recess 26 in the free ends thereof. The recesses 20 are adapted to receive the male truncated conical heads 22 of the drive shafts '24- rotatably housed in the handle 26, the handle 26 being formed with an elongated square shaped tongue or stud 28 medially thereof at the free end thereof to be received in the complementary shaped socket 30 formed in the shell l2 intermediate of the shafts l8, and the tongue has a conical end 32 to engage the conical bottom 34 of the socket 30. On one side of the tongue 28 there is secured by the end 36 the spring latch 38 which is adapted to engage in the socket 4D to retain the shell and handle in unit assembly, and when the two are separated by a strong pull, the

1 Claim. (01. 15-23) 2 V latch'will recline in the recess 42 in the tongue 28 since the free end 44 thereof is free to slide in the recess 42. Thus the two are latched togethe or unlatched as desired.

The shafts 24 are provided with sockets 46' adapted for detachable connection with the square ends 48 of flexible shafts 50=housed ina flexible body 52 of rubber or other suitable-flexible material and the shaft may be of any length desired, v v I I The shafts 56 which may be formed of wire or other suitable inter-engaging elements are driven by an electric motor 54, having its drive shaft provided with a gear 56 which meshes with a second gear 58 of the same size, the two gears being rotatably supported inside a housing 60 attachable to one end of the motor 54 as by screws 62.

The gears 56 and 58 are respectively provided with square shafts 64 receivable in sockets 66 respectively, formed on the shafts '50.

The head [0 is separable from the handle 26, and the head is provided with a thumb slot 68 by which the head is moved toward the handle 26 to provide frictional engagement of the male members 22 with the female members 26 to cause rotation of the brushes l4, and release of pressure on the head I 0 will cause disengagement thereof and subsequent stopping of the rotary motion of the brushes I4 and disconnection of the brushes with the motor.

The brushes [4 are so arranged as to perform an efficient tooth cleaning function, in that the bristles sweep longitudinally of the teeth. The bristles act on opposite sides of the teeth, and move outwardly of the teeth.

It is believed that the foregoing description will enable those skilled in the art to clearly understand the operation and construction of the invention, and it is to be understood that changes in the minor details of construction, arrangement and combination of parts may be resorted to, provided they fall within the spirit of the invention and the scope of the appended claim.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

In a power driven rotary toothbrush, the combination, which comprises, a substantially hollow brush housing with an open side and having an extending neck, a pair of cylindrical brushes positioned in said housing in parallel relation and with parts of the brushes projecting beyond the housing on the open side thereof, parallel shafts having conical sockets in the outer ends thereof on which shafts the brushes are mounted, said 3 parallel shafts being rotatably mounted in said housing and extending through the said extending neck thereof, the extending neck of said housing having an inwardly extending locating socket in the outer end thereof positioned between the said parallel shafts, an intermediate shaft section providing a handle having two parallel shafts therein with a prong extending from one end position to coact with the socket in the end of the neck of the housing to connect the handle to the housing for relative longitudinal movement, said parallel shafts of the handle having truncated conical ends positioned to frictionally engage the conical sockets in the ends of the shafts carrying the brushes when said housing and said handle are manually urged together and'having receiving sockets in the opposite ends, the outerlsurface of the neck of the said housing having a thumb slot in one side to facilitate drawing the conical sockets of the parallel shafts of the housing over the truncated conical ends of the parallel shafts of the intermediate shaft section whereby pressure on the head provides gripping action between the conical ends of the shafts and conical sockets for rotating the brushes and release of the pressure relieves the gripping action for stopping the brushes, a motor having a motor shaft, an auxiliary shaft parallel to the motor shaft and geared thereto, said motor shaft and auxiliary shaft having squared ends, and an intermediate elongated flexible housing having parallel flexible shafts therein with the shafts squared at one end of the flexible housing to coact with the receiving sockets in the ends of the shafts of the handle and having square receiving sockets in the opposite ends to receive and coact with the squared ends of the motor and auxiliary shafts.

DELIO MARTI NEZ MARTI NEZ.

REFERENCES crrizn The following references are of record in the :flle of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number I Name Date 736,607 Lane Aug. 18, 1903 1,243,579 Bates Oct. 16, 1917 1,555,522 Shapiro Sept. 29, 1925 1,569,167 Anderson, Sr Jan. 12, 1926 1,608,532 Robey Nov. 30, 1926 1,774,031 McLellan Aug. 26, 1930 1,891,470 Errington etal Dec. 20, 1932 1,901,503 Fessenden Mar. 14, 1933 2,124,145 MerkeLJr July 19, 1938 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 38,834 Denmark June 4, 1928 849,325 France Nov. 21, 1939 

